


Opposites Attract

by Not_You



Series: one only understands the things that one tames [30]
Category: Captain America: Winter Soldier, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - BDSM, Barbecue, Children, Collars, F/M, Fluff, Identity Porn, Major Original Character(s), Neighbors, POV Character of Color, POV Outsider, Pets, Suburbia, Turtles, Undercover, little kids don't really get religion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-16
Updated: 2014-04-16
Packaged: 2018-01-19 14:46:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1473628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Not_You/pseuds/Not_You
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Nick and Natasha's neighbors attempt to make sense of them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Opposites Attract

Faye can't help but be a little edgy about their new neighbor. Darrell teases her about internalized racism, and she just rolls her eyes and says that a white man in those shades with those scars would alarm her a hell of a lot more. Darrell laughs and so does Faye, but she does keep the children close to her when they and Mark Nichols are outside at the same time. Not that he actually seems like a bad guy. He just nods when he sees them, and unlike those goddamn hippies who had the place last year, he's always fully clothed when he comes out to get the mail (a full-length bathrobe counts.)

Because Mark Nichols isn't any kind of sex offender or anything they leave him to his own devices, and Faye really has no idea about him until the day she meets his sub. Darrell in his endless hospitality has said that they might as well invite Mark to their barbeque, and has given her his usual doe-eyed, 'I'm just a poor, shy little sub,' bullshit, leaving her ringing Mark Nichols's doorbell and wondering if he's even home. It's about four pm on a Sunday, though, so she's not very surprised to get an answer. Faye is surprised to see a pretty little white woman in the doorway, though.

“Hello,” the woman says with a sweet smile. “Can I help you?”

“I came over to see if Mark wanted to come to our barbeque next weekend. Are you his sub?”

She blushes. “Yes, ma'am.” 

Faye is never going to get over this. Any time she has pictured Mark's hypothetical sub, it has been someone tough-looking, one of those removed and untameable types who wear spiked collars. Elisabeth is nothing like that. She's wearing a blue house-dress and her perfect little feet are bare. Her collar is translucent pink plastic, with a little silver heart tag with 'Princess' engraved on it. It's a bit young for her, but also really cute. She invites Faye to sit down in the comfortable, sunny kitchen, and pours each of them a glass of lemonade, which tastes homemade because it is. Elisabeth mentions some complicated and tragic family upheaval as a motivating force for their moving house, and Faye doesn't pry because she can see on Elisabeth's face that it's painful. It does Faye's heart good to see the way the girl just lights up when Mark's car pulls into the driveway. Elisabeth kneels in greeting when Mark comes through the door and pulls his boots off as he smiles down at her, looking positively sweet.

“Thank you, baby girl,” he says, and then composes himself to glower over at Faye the way he usually does. “Hey.”

“I came by to invite you to the barbeque we're having next weekend, and Elisabeth invited me in for some of this wonderful lemonade.”

Mark chuckles, giving Elisabeth a hand up. “Should we bring something?”

Faye ends up taking their contact information so she can email them as part of the general effort to keep everyone from bringing dessert, and then fleeing back across the street to tell Darrell that Mark isn't single like they thought, and that his sub is just adorable. Naturally, Darrell pretends to be jealous and Faye cuddles and cossets him in it because it's cute and because Darrell has issues, just like everyone else.

“Just because a girl's pretty doesn't mean you're not the prettiest,” she coos in his ear, and it's a joke and not a joke because Darrell is chubby and losing his hair and there is no one on earth Faye would rather have. She kisses his crows' feet and and runs her hands over his nice round belly, cushiony and resilient to the touch. They can't get up to too much with the house full of little pitchers and their giant ears, but they get some use out of the good restraints and Darrell spends the rest of the week smiling.

It's an action-packed week, with a PTA meeting and a minor medical emergency and a christening for a goddamn box turtle. At least it doesn't seem annoyed to be sprinkled with water, and just placidly munches lettuce as Patrice tells it that it's a good Christian now. He's still a bit young for the full explanation of how little a turtle cares about religion, and the whole ceremony is pretty adorable. Saturday dawns bright and sunny, and the turtle is an honored guest at the barbecue, sitting in a box by the backyard gate and slowly chewing lettuce, regarding visitors with its beady eyes.

Elisabeth and Mark arrive after things have been underway for a little while, and after the first few greetings Elisabeth crouches to examine the turtle. Her long brown hair is French braided down her back, and she's wearing a short dress and leggings. Mark is in jeans and a faded Real Doms Choose Respect t-shirt, and he stands there holding a bowl of fruit salad and looking fond and amused as Elisabeth pets the turtle's little head and asks Patrice about it.

Patrice is the baby of the family, a shy little sub who usually doesn't talk to anyone he doesn't know well. But today he smiles and whispers to Elisabeth about the christening while she listens attentively. For some reason, she seems pained when Faye tells her much later on that she would be a good mother. It's true, though. Patrice has fallen asleep in Elisabeth's lap, and she holds him easily, like someone who knows how.

“I think I might be a bit under-qualified for the position,” is all Elisabeth says, stroking Patrice's short-cropped fuzz before she hands him over to Faye, stretching her back as the first few stars come out. Mark comes back from the house where he was helping Darrell and the girls get the dishes under control, empty salad bowl under his arm.

“Anything else we can do?” He asks, shifting the bowl to the other side so he can put that arm around Elisabeth.

Faye smiles. “No, I think we're all right. Thanks for coming, and for the salad.”

They respond in kind, and Faye watches them go, an unlikely and beautiful pair in the deepening twilight.


End file.
